Copywriting no-nos and how to avoid them

The truth is, writing workable copy for your school's marketing program can be easier than you think. It ain't rocket surgery, but there are a few rules to keep in mind to avoid the pitfalls that plague many promotional efforts. Here are six suggestions.

1. If you can't make it great, play it straight. There's really no need to sprain your brain trying to make your messaging truly brilliant and world changing. Like the saying goes, nobody's going to hang your work in the Louvre. Instead, focus on being clear instead of genius. Err on the side of simplicity. Give your audience the information they need without trying to impress them with your cleverness (save that for those partial panel approaches when your left engine is on fire and a goose has decided to camp out on your lap). Clever can backfire as often as it succeeds, so do yourself a favor and just start writing a clear, concise marketing message that says what you want your viewers/readers to do.
2. Limit your marketing message to one idea. Don't try to cram your entire service offering into one headline or paragraph. Develop a highly focused message that communicates a single customer benefit. “Be a pilot by Spring,” is stronger than “We provide all levels of training, ground schools, airplane rental, and maintenance.” Flight school managers and owners often attempt to put too much information out because advertising was so bloody expensive. Their thinking was to include the kitchen sink in every ad or communication in hope of at least one feature grabbing somebody, but the message is too diffuse to have real meaning to the target audience. The result? “Advertising doesn't work.” Tell that to the successful companies  with multi-page spreads in major aviation magazines. It does work; you just have to know how to do it right.
3. Use the words “we,” “our”, and “us” as though they cost $1,000 each. Your audience is much more interested in themselves than they are in you, so take the hint and talk to them about them. Tell them, in plain English, how your school will benefit them by helping them achieve their goals. Don't say “Our fleet of modern airplanes means plenty of availability,” when you could just as easily say “You'll finish more quickly, have more fun, and probably spend less by choosing a school with a large, well-equipped and maintained fleet of aircraft.” Every salesperson knows (yes, you are a salesperson; you're just selling flight training instead of cars, but the principles are the same) that you should focus on how your services will change their lives for the better. In other words, craft your marketing messages with the emphasis on benefits, not features. Instead of saying “We're open weekends until 7,” say “Extended hours means you can fly on your timeframe and gain more experience faster.”
4. For heaven's sake, don't kill the category. Don't disparage your competitors with claims of better safety and/or maintenance. Never imply that Brand X across the field is “in trouble,” or “on their last legs.” In other words, don't do or say anything that puts the category of flight training in a bad light; that bad light will reflect back to shine on your school, too. The airline industry decided a long time ago to not use their safety records in promotions or as a way of differentiating Airline A from Airline B. Why? Because they understood deep in their baggage compartments that any negativity against one will lead to tit-for-tat countermeasures that would chip away at the entire industry. There are always legitimate ways to separate your school from the pack that do not involve dissing anybody. Focus on those.
5. Don't forget the CTA. It's all well and good that you create solid marketing copy, but if you don't tell your readers/viewers what you want them to do, you won't get the most bang from your marketing buck. Copywriters call it the CTA, or Call to Action, and it can be the most important part of your messaging. Be clear about what you want to have happen. Don't just include a telephone number and assume they'll call; tell 'em to call, but not just that, tell them to call for a specific reason. “Call today to schedule your Discovery Flight” is better than “For more information, call XXX-XXXX.” Better yet, “Call today or click to schedule your Discovery Flight.” Words don't pay the bills, actions do, so make your phone ring and inbox fill up with customers eager to get started at your school.
6. Proofread, proofread, then proofread again. Nothing casts shade on a marketing message like poor grammar, misspelled words, or poor sentence structure. Hey, the written language is not everybody's forte, so make sure you and at least two to three other people read your work and make suggestions before pushing it out into the world. Every professional copywriter will cite chapter and verse of the time(s) they proofread their own work only to have a glaring error jump out at them the very second they cast eyes on the published version. It's uncanny how that happens, and it demolishes your credibility. And don't just have any ol' body do the proofreading; find somebody who has the patience to wade through your work with an eye toward finding errors. One common technique is to have them read the document backwards. That way, they won't see any flow to the language and will proof each word separately.

Any writer will tell you that the hardest part of writing is getting those first few words on the page. Often as not, the juices start flowing and the words just come. You'll probably have to review, re-write, and edit a time or two before you get it the way you want it, but that's the copywriting game. Best advice? Make like Nike and Just Do It.